Published 11:20 pm, Monday, January 3, 2011

A customer shops in the cold and allergy medicine aisle oat Oakdell Pharmacy. Observers say that 2011 is shaping up to be bad year for allergy sufferers who are sensitive to mountain cedar pollen.

A customer shops in the cold and allergy medicine aisle oat Oakdell Pharmacy. Observers say that 2011 is shaping up to be bad year for allergy sufferers who are sensitive to mountain cedar pollen.

Photo: EDWARD A. ORNELAS/eaornelas@express-news.net

Cedar pollen ripe to spread misery

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Along with the traditional bottle rockets, champagne and soon-to-be broken resolutions, New Year's Day arrived last weekend with something a lot less happy — lots and lots of mountain cedar pollen.

Jan. 1 brought not only the highest pollen count of the season so far, at 22,300 grains per cubic meter of air, but also the highest single-day count measured here since 2003.

And given the generous rainfall through September last year, some observers are predicting an unpleasant few weeks ahead.

“The trees are really loaded this year,” said Dr. Paul Ratner, an allergist who provides pollen counts that appear in the San Antonio Express-News and on local TV stations each day. “It seems we're right on track for whatever you want to call it. I call it a good cedar year, but not if you have cedar allergies.”

Ratner said this year's season, which began Christmas Eve, has already produced more than half the amount of mountain cedar pollen seen during the entire season last year, which was mild. Mountain cedar season typically begins in mid-December and lasts well into February.

Dr. Dale Mohar, a Kerrville allergist, said the trees there are “really red” with pollen and that counts have been “in the thousands since last week.”

“It's been so dry recently, the trees are heavy and nothing's being washed away,” Mohar said. “It's actually a classic cedar season, and we're going to have pollen probably until the first couple of weeks of February.”

Mountain cedar is the common name for the Ashe juniper trees that grow in thick forests across the Hill Country. The reddish-brown pollen arrives each winter on chilly north winds, usually after the first frost.

And it's a lot of pollen — sometimes enough to leave a reddish blanket of powder on cars and lawn furniture. Mountain cedar trees generate some of the highest concentrations of pollen of any plant.

Unlike in most places, where ragweed is the No. 1 misery-producing allergen, mountain cedar holds that rank in South and Central Texas.

Mark Duff, a staff forester with the Texas Forest Service, said it's hard to predict the severity of mountain cedar seasons by weather patterns. While more rainfall generally means healthy trees, too much rain can mean the opposite. And sometimes when trees are in distress from too little rainfall, they can respond with pollen.

Throw in the extreme weather patterns of drought and saturation seen here the past three years, and things get really confusing in regard to mountain cedar pollen. The roller-coaster climate conditions have been brutal for many types of trees, including the hardy Ashe juniper.

“Some of them didn't survive,” Duff said. “We lost quite a few. Maybe less than 1 percent, but that's still thousands of them.”

Expect few allergy sufferers to weep at the loss. But Ratner notes that the past five years have produced three of the mildest mountain cedar seasons on record. And while counts of 50,000 or higher used to be routine, San Antonio hasn't broken 30,000 in several years. Whether it's climate change or increasing development to the north — or something else — he's not sure.

“It could be environmental,” Ratner said. “It could be warmer than usual. Could be developers. But with 8 million acres of cedar (in the Hill Country), I think it's going to take a while to put a dent in that.”

Experts recommend that people who are sensitive to mountain cedar pollen remain indoors when possible during the season. To relieve symptoms, nasal steroids and antihistamines can help. Those with severe or persistent problems can sometimes benefit from allergy shots.